Esther the Baker's Van
by bbll22
Summary: *CHAPTER 2 NOW UP* Esther is the new baker's van on the Island of Sodor. She is small, and has a lovely blue canvas retractable roof. She's proud of her work and is eager to make friends and always do well. These stories then will try to show how Esther copes as Sodor's premier baker's van and how good a character she can be! Please review!
1. Esther and the Soggy Bread

Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

Stories

**Esther and the Soggy Bread**

Bread is a real necessity now on the Island of Sodor, so the head baker decided to bring in more staff to cope with the increased workload, and a new baker's van to help deliver the freshly-made bread all around the Island. The baker's van was called Esther; she was a small beige van with four small wheels, and a blue retractable roof. This made loading up Esther much easier than a conventional back-door entry van. Esther was very eager to work and was ever so willing to set a good example for the ever expanding baker's business.

The ovens were at extraordinary heats baking away at the newly-made doughs that would become breads. The baker's did specialise in other good too such as the Fat Controller's favourite breakfast meal – Crumpets and other wonderful things. The head baker's wife made cakes as well so they were never short of work. The breads were now ready after coming out of the oven and left to cool for a tiny bit. Once cooled, they were loaded into big red crates, and then loaded into Esther. She then set off and delivered the bread to greengrocers on the Island and even delivered especially to certain residents on Sodor. Mrs. Kyndley was a regular customer of the baker's, so fresh loafs of bread were very welcome indeed. Esther always tooted her horn as she passed someone on her delivery route and spoke to everyone to whom she had delivered bread to. They were always friendly and praised how well Esther and the bakers were doing now. This made Esther smile.  
"Atleast were wanted then!" she said to her driver.  
"Indeed we are, Esther!" he replied. Over the course of the day, Esther returned to the baker's several times to top up her crates of bread and once again, deliver them. Esther loved her work, but above them in the skies, the beautiful sunny day was turning all of a sudden...

As it was a sunny day, Esther's driver had decided to keep her retractable roof down as nothing would seemingly harm the bread, and he was right. Everything was going fine as the day carried on beautifully. Even when they were on a break, Esther still felt fine keeping her roof down as she felt somehow it made the bread smell and look better than it had before. Her driver agreed, but as he sat down reading the newspaper while drinking a cup of tea from the Refreshment Lady, a little drop of rain landed onto his jacket. He immediately looked up and noticed that the clouds were just starting to go a dark grey; this was worryingly a sign of incoming rain but for now it didn't worry him.  
"Must be a passing shower of rain" he said to Esther.  
"Will the bread be ok?" questioned Esther in reply.  
"Of course!" her driver quickly replied. "There's no need to worry! Come on! Let's finish today's work, it's the last batch to be delivered!" he then added. Esther smiled, she'd be happy to finish her work today. She may love her job, but she would like a good few hours rest from it instead of the 15 minutes she'd just had. So her driver got back into his seat, and they set off and the last batch of the day.

Most of the clouds above Sodor were now turning to the dark grey; rainy clouds were very common on the Island, but Esther's driver kept reassuring her that it was just a passing shower and that the bread would be fine. Esther accepted his reassurance and carried on doing her delivering duties. They were almost nearing the end of the day and the final batch of bread was diminishing after several deliveries, but the rain clouds got darker, and Esther was now seriously worried.  
"I think it's going to rain very soon!" she said to her driver.  
"We'll be fine Esther, it won't be heavy rain anyway!" he then replied, but he was wrong. The rain then started all of a sudden, and it came down with some force, it was some very heavy rain indeed.  
"Oh no!" cried Esther. Her driver quickly pulled her over and got out of his seat. He then went over to the retractable roof and tried to pull it up, but it was stuck.  
"Oh dear..." said Esther's driver.  
"What's the matter?" Esther quickly questioned with concern.  
"Your roof isn't closing! The bread is getting wet! Very, very wet!" he replied. Esther didn't respond, she couldn't do anything to help, her retractable roof was a manual roof and only her driver could help save the bread. The rain was getting even heavier now, and the bread was suffering because of it. It was going soggy now, and soggy bread isn't what the customers want. Esther knew this, and she didn't want upset customers at all. The rain kept pelting onto her bonnet and she could feel it coming down even harder than it had before, but her driver had now unstuck the retractable roof and lifted it into position. The bread was now safe, but it was very soggy indeed...  
The rain soon came to a halt and Esther's driver then retracted her roof to inspect the damage done to the bread.  
"We can't deliver this!" he said to Esther. "It's too soggy now!"  
"Oh dear..." replied Esther. All she could think about were the customers who would now not get their bread. She felt very glum indeed. Her driver then tapped her bonnet.  
"Cheer up gal, we'll just have to explain to the head baker what happened, and then we can explain to the customers tomorrow..." he said. Esther's glum expression faded a little bit at this, but she still felt sad for the customers. She soon returned to the baker's and waited outside while her driver explained the problem with the head baker. He accepted the issue, and didn't take any action against Esther or her driver. All he did was tell them that they should use the roof more from now on. They agreed, and promised nothing like this would happen ever again.

The next day, Esther and her driver made up for the soggy batch by delivering more to the people who had missed out the day before. They were very surprised indeed and thanked Esther, her driver and the baker's very much so. Esther smiled so much at this that her cheeks went bright red with delight. From now on, Esther and her driver have learnt to use the retractable roof more. They accept they went wrong, and made sure it would never happen ever again as they love their job ever so much. There was no point in wanting to risk it at all...


	2. Iced Esther

Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

Stories

**Iced Esther**

Esther the baker's van loves her work on the Island of Sodor and is making great friends with many there. She often chats with Edward when on a break from her rounds and has make good friends with Fergus and more surprisingly Ranger the roadroller. Come rain or shine; that is if her roof isn't broken, Esther does her work well and enjoys everything about it. One morning, she was zooming along through the country roads on a chilly morning when she saw Ranger looking glum beside the road.  
"What's the matter?" Esther asked as she came to a stop. Ranger looked at her but didn't reply. He looked terrible and Esther couldn't work out why. "What's wrong?" she then asked kindly.  
"I've got no work to do whatsoever…" Ranger sighed sadly. "Any works that needs doing is being taken by George of Buster. I'm not needed."  
"So why are you hanging about here?" Esther then asked. "You're shed is a good way away…"  
"I like looking at the lake..." came Ranger's reply. Esther looked to her right and saw Ranger admiring the cold blue lake beside the road. The cold weather made the lake look freezing in temperature and it most probably was. Despite that it did look nice with luscious trees in its background and a glimmer of sunshine poking through the clouds, but Esther simply couldn't work out why it fascinated Ranger so much. "Winter's coming…" Ranger then sighed.  
"Indeed," agreed Esther. "The lake will have frozen over by then."  
"Exactly…" grinned Ranger as a wide smile formed across his face. Esther could now see what Ranger's fascination in the lake was for. It wasn't actually the lake itself; it was how smooth a frozen lake could be. It would be a reminder of work similar to his but done by nature. Realising she needed to move on fast, Esther just tooted her horn as she left but couldn't help think Ranger should have been in his nice and warm shed.

As the day progressed, the chill in the air grew and apart from her heater being on warming up her driver, the only heat keeping Esther nice and toasty was the freshly baked bread being loaded into her hold. The blue canvas retractable roof of hers was now stronger than before so was unlikely to lead to any more soggy products in future. As the men were loading her up though, Esther noticed a tray of something she hadn't seen before. It looked like an ordinary plain bun but it had a clear white strip of something slathered across its top. The hardened white stuff looked sticky and not nice to Esther at all.  
"What…are they?" she then asked indignantly to the head baker's wife who was in the loading section.  
"They're iced buns, Esther…" she replied. "Kids love them whatever the weather."  
"They don't look healthy…" Esther then mumbled. The head baker's wife had heard the remark just as she was leaving and couldn't help but smile. She turned back round to Esther.  
"Eating plenty of bread isn't healthy in the long-term either." she smiled. "A treat is a treat though and in this weather, treats are our most popular product."  
"Oh…I see…" Esther said surprised. She couldn't see the fuss about iced buns as they didn't look overly appetising to her at all. Bread was what she liked the most and even though she couldn't eat it, the smell was always wonderful. To her, the iced buns just smelt of sugar and plenty of it. Soon, her driver arrived and they set off again but the conditions were getting worse and worse. Clouds were going grey and some people feared an incoming snowfall was in the offing.  
"It's not what we need…" sighed Esther's driver as he looked out of the cab window. "We best speed up…" he added as they zoomed off.

Winter winds were now beginning to howl across the island and slight flurries of snow began to fall over high ground. Esther was currently travelling up high hills on her deliveries to schools and clubs delivering whatever goods they required. As the bread and treats cooled off though, she began to shiver.  
"Brr…bitter cold, bitter cold…" she scoffed.  
"It is getting chilly…" agreed her driver as he turned up Esther's cab heater. The light snow was already beginning to settle around them and in just mere minutes, the land turned white. It had gone as white as the strip on the iced buns. Esther had never seen snow settle so quickly before and neither had her driver. Temperatures were fast decreasing and little patches of ice were beginning to form on sections of the road. It was becoming tricky to navigate around them without causing any damage to the good in Esther's hold.  
"Steady on!" called Esther to her driver as he veered in between the icy patches.  
"I'm trying my best…" he called back as he manoeuvred as best as he could. The light snow was growing heavier and heavier by the moment and soon Esther's windscreen wipers were being stopped in their tracks by the heavy white stuff.  
"Urgh…" she groaned. "Go away!" she then called to the snow but it simply wouldn't budge. Esther's driver had to look out of his side window to help see ahead and in the distance he caught a glimpse of Ranger's yellow warning light flashing in the distance. Ranger could hear something like an engine of a car ahead of him as he and his driver made their way back home, but all of a sudden the engine noise grew louder and louder and then a screeching noise was heard. In a flash something whooshed straight past him.  
"AAHHHH!" came the cries of vehicle. It didn't take long for Ranger to realise who it was.  
"Esther!" he cried as he began to turn around. As he turned, he could see in the corner of his eye that Esther's wheels had lost all grip on the road in a severe icy patch and she was now careering down the mound next to the road. Snow and mud splattered all over her and she shook violently down the bumpy mound. Her driver was fighting to regain control but he was struggling. He could hear the goods in the hold bouncing and splatting all about and he couldn't do anything about it.  
"Hold on…" he called out to Esther as he then saw what was next in their view. Esther just froze in shock as a small icy lake came closer and closer towards them.  
"AAAHHH!" she cried once more as a chilly splash of winter water sloshed over them. "St…st…st…stupid…..i…i…ice…" she shivered loudly.

Ranger and his driver had soon called for help and were waiting at the roadside when Esther was pulled back onto the tarmac. She was cold and her face was blue in parts from the chilly and frozen waters. Her driver wasn't too bad but his spirits were chilled by the state of Esther's hold. Bread and buns were all over the place and were smashed and ruined. The sticky icing on the buns had meant some had even stuck firmly to Esther's blue canvas roofing. She was aghast.  
"I said they were no good!" she sighed as Ranger rolled up alongside to cheer her up. He couldn't help but smile at his friend's sticky and chilly predicament.  
"Cheer up, Esther…" he chimed. "It could be a lot worse…"  
"How?!" Esther asked incredulously. "I'm frozen to the core, my hold is ruined and I have got iced buns stuck to my lovely blue canvas roof. How could it be worse?"  
"You could have changed your mind and now actually like iced buns, ay, iced Esther?!" Ranger replied jokingly.  
"Iced Esther?" she grinned. "Now that does have a good ring to it…"  
"Healthy too…" smiled her driver. "You're absolutely fine. No damage done to your components."  
"Esther," smiled Ranger. "Proven to be healthier than iced buns for sure…" he added as everyone laughed.


End file.
